Encouraging greater sport participation

There is substantial evidence of many psychological, physical, and social health benefits of participation in sport across the lifespan, including that participation in sport is associated with improved psychological and social health benefits above other forms of leisure time physical activity for children and adolescents. Some reports indicate that team sports rather than individual activities are associated with better health (Eime et al., 2013).

Despite the identified health benefits, there is a large drop out rate in sport participation between ages 18-24, with adult sport participation peaking between ages 15-17 (Little, 2018)

In Australia, there is not an issue attracting children into sport, with 83% of girls and 89% of boys of primary school age participating in sport at last once a week (AusPlay Report, April, 2018). The socio-cultural context of children's sport is suggested as an influence on participation at this age - active participation, plenty of encouragement by coaches and family, a focus on developing ability and on enjoyment not competition and winning, being with and making friends, and perceptions of competence (Cope et al., 2013). Moving from children (junior) sport to adolescent (youth) sport in Australia accompanies more emphasis on competition, medals, leader boards, results, talent identification, and winning. At this stage, the first migration away from sport occurs (Agnew et al., 2016) when coaching emphasis and the participation environment is not aligned with those seeking a more participatory orientated sport context, which I call the three F's - fun, friends and fitness.

Social interaction (friendship), enjoyment and feeling 'competent enough' are main motivators for sport participation throughout life, regardless of age (Allender et al., 2006; Little, 2018; Stenner et al., 2019). With older adults, the health benefits derived from the physical and social activity of sport are important in motivating continued participation (Stenner et al., 2019). With respect to children's participation in sport, parent/guardian support, encouragement and involvement are central to the initial engagement and then sustained participation in sport (Agnew et al., 2016).

My experience of 34 years of coaching youth and young adult sport is that many youth and young adult consider sport is expensive, when young people come to consider their discretionary spending, and it lacks flexibility with 'competition' often being locked into a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, when many who are combining study and work have their employment opportunities. Flexible 'pay as you play' options are often not available. Short, socially oriented sport sessions are not available. Sport for health, like cardio tennis and cardio football, are difficult to find. For adolescent and young adults, greater sport participation requires that sport be more flexible in terms of scheduling and availability, more affordable, and more social. As an adult, their are many social sport opportunities available in mixed netball, touch football, volleyball, AFL9s etc. Social and recreational (informal/leisure) sport opportunities are generally not available to an adolescent unless they play in an adult competition. In my experience, sport club committees tend to be filled by older adults, often past players. I believe sport clubs should have youth and young adult advisory groups to advise them on planning and catering for young people's motivations and interests in participation through co-creation.

In my opinion, we should care if people play sport. By sport, I include competitive, social and recreational leisure and informal sport. I also include 'ergo' sports like indoor rowing, sport for health like cardio tennis. We should care as research affirms that the potential physical, social and psychological benefits of sport participation across the lifespan are compelling. Participation in sport can reduce the incidence of chronic disease, build confidence and self-esteem, can enhance a sense of community and assist people in developing social relationships and a sense of belonging (Little, 2018). I am not suggesting sport participation is for everyone. I am suggesting sport participation could be made more accessible to more youth and adults.

At a recent national coaching symposium focussed on growing participation in a sport, I suggested sport needed to be better at 'taking the game to people', and one way is by considering what their sport is to be able to provide different entry and engagement opportunities. For example, all of the images in this picture are tennis, but I see few of these tennis engagement opportunities provided informally or formally in my community or school settings

Previous Learning through Sport blogs on this topic:

Children, junior and youth sport: retention messages (2020) here

What encourages or inhibits children and youth participation in sport (2018) here

Is fun a cognitive distortion for PE and sport coaching (2018) here

References

Agnew et al (2016) here

Allender et al (2006) here

Cope et al. (2013) here

Eime et al (2013) here 

Little (2018) here

Stenner et al (2019) here